Dr Ugo Mondini

I am a philologist and a literary scholar. My research focuses on Ancient and Medieval Greek literature; technical sources, such as grammatical, metrical, and rhetorical treatises; textual criticism. More broadly, I am interested in how Greek language was taught and used in different contexts as well as in when, why, and how literature was composed in the premodern world.

My British Academy project will result in a multidisciplinary reconsideration of eleventh-century schedography, a method of teaching Greek grammar that significantly impacted text production in Greek for more than five centuries.

I have studied Greek poetry from the Hellenistic period to the Renaissance with the aim of comprehending the forms, the contents, and the status of poetry throughout space and time. In doing so, I have worked on individual poets (from Callimachus to Theodoros Gaza) and works (Ioannes Mauropous’ poetry book; Tzetzes’ Little and Big Iliad, Manuel Philes’ Metaphrasis of the Psalms).

Here in Oxford, I am the Principal Investigator of the TORCH Network Poetry in the Medieval World a platform to discuss premodern poetry from a global perspective. With Rebecca Menmuir, I am the organiser of GLARE – Greek and Latin Reading Group at Exeter and Lincoln Colleges.

Greek Language & Literature – Byzantium – Poetry – Education

2023-2024

• Byzantine Literature Lectures
• Byzantine Text Seminars
• Modern Greek (Digenis Akritis, Late Medieval and Early Modern Romances, Dimotika, Erotokritos)
• Tutorials at Exeter College (Classics), St Peter’s College, and St Anne’s College (Modern Greek)

Full Publications:

Books
[in progress] Giovanni Mauropode, Poesie. Byzantinisches Archiv (DeGruyter). 

Die metrische Psalmenmetaphrase des Manuel Philes. Byzantinisches Archiv 44 (De Gruyter: Berlin -- Boston, 2024). With Anna Gioffreda and Andreas Rhoby.

Edited volumes
[in progress] Interfacing with Linguistic Norms. With Chiara Monaco. 

[in progress] Mount Athos in the middle Byzantine period. Communities between Constantinopolitan culture and periphery. With Alberto Ravani. 

(S)proporzioni. Scala, taglia e dimensione tra visuale e testuale, Consonanze 27 (Milano: Ledizioni, 2022). With Patrizia Piacentini, Giovanni Colzani, Maddalena La Rosa, Irene Sozzi.

Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles and Book Chapters
[forthcoming] “Voicing political relief through Psalms. The Composition in Form of a Psalm by Manuel II Palaiologos”, in F. Bernard et al. (eds.), David, our Orpheus. Byzantine poetry and the Psalms

[in print] “The learned bishop and the unicorn: Michael Choniates, Poem 5 Lambros”, in N. Zagklas – B. van den Berg (eds.), Poetry in Byzantine Literature and Society (1081–1204) (Cambridge: CUP, 2024), 389–408.

“Manuel Philes und die Psalmen im griechischen Mittelalter. Der synoptische Psalmentext in der Edition von Philes’ Psalmenmetaphrase, in F. Albrecht – R.G. Krantz (eds.), Editing the Greek Psalter (Vandenhoeck&Ruprecht: Göttingen, 2024), 523–537.

“Greek and Latin epigrams on the death of Theodoros Gaza”, in K. Kubina (ed.), Poetry in Late Byzantium, The Medieval Mediterranean 139 (Leiden: Brill, 2024), 191–235.

“L’uso di versi olospondaici nel dodecasillabo prosodico bizantino”, Rivista di Cultura Classica e Medievale 65.2 (2023): 513–550.

“John of all trades. The Μικρομεγάλη Ἰλιάς and Tzetzes’ ‘didactic’ programme”, in E.E. Prodi (ed.), Τζετζικαὶ ἔρευναι, Eikasmos – Studi Online 4 (Bologna:  Pàtron editore, 2022): 237–259.

“La grandiosa ira di Achille in miniatura. Tensioni tra grande e piccolo nella Μικρομεγάλη Ἰλιάς di Giovanni Tzetze”, in P. Piacentini et alii (eds.), (S)proporzioni. Scala, taglia e dimensione tra visuale e testuale (Milano: Ledizioni, 2022): 119–134.

“L’epigramma di Antipatro per Erinna (Ep. 58 HE = T8 Neri = AP 7.713)”, Aevum Antiquum N.S. 21 (2021 [2022]): 295–308.

“Un’incoronazione imperiale nel monastero di Sostenio (Giovanni Mauropode, Carm. 80)”, Incontri Triestini di Filologia classica 20 (2020–2021): 267–298.

“Composing the Μικρομεγάλη Ἰλιάς. Macro- and microstructure of a Byzantine Homeric poem”, Byzantinische Zeitschrift 114.1 (2021): 325–354.

“Il silenzio di Lazzaro nel Carm. 80 di Cristoforo Mitileneo”, Bisanzio e l’Occidente 3 (2021): 11–18 [repr. in C. Castelli – M. Della Valle – A. Torno Ginnasi (eds.), Cultura letteraria e artistica tra Bisanzio e l’Occidente, Hendiadys. Momenti e passaggi della tradizione antica 1 (Milano: Ledizioni, 2021): 53–63].

“La preoccupazione filosofica dei corvi nel fr. 393 Pf. di Callimaco”, Acme 70.1 (2017): 61–72.

Reviews
Gregorios Antiochos, Reden und Briefe, ed. Alexander Sideras (Vienna: Verlag der ÖAW, 2021), «Bryn Mawr Classical Review» 2024.04.13, https://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2024/2024.04.13/.

F. Spingou (ed.), The visual culture of later Byzantium (1081–c.1350) (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022),  «Bryn Mawr Classical Review» 2023.09.16, https://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2023/2023.09.16/.

Essays
“Fuor del dritto amore: la rappresentazione dell’incesto e la dinastia comnena”, in S. Quadrelli, E. Subrani (eds.), I figli di Eolo. Il motivo mitico e letterario dell’incesto tra antico e moderno, Il portico. Biblioteca di lettere e arti 187, Ravenna, Longo Editore, 2020): 103–113.